The longtime Patriots signal-caller knew New England would eventually mine the draft for a potential heir apparent.

"I felt like I had a pretty good idea we'd take a quarterback," Brady recently told The MMQB.com's Peter King. "Coach (Bill) Belichick doesn't care who the quarterback is here. He's always going to play the guy who he thinks gives him the best chance to win."

At 36, Brady's starting role is rooted in security, but he makes a fair point about Belichick's history of unemotional decision-making at the quarterback position.

"There's no entitlement in the NFL," Brady said. "I don't expect to be given anything. I just hope I'm the one most entitled to play that position for a long time here."

Brady plans to play into his 40s and would have no problem keeping Garoppolo as anonymous as phantom backup Ryan Mallett, pointing out to King: "This is not the first time they've taken another quarterback."

"I want to play a long time," he said. "There's nothing I like doing that's close to football. What'll I do when I'm done playing? I don't know, but I know it won't be nearly as fun. I can tell you neither me nor Peyton (Manning) will probably be very far from the game of football when we're done."